1 Kings 15:24, commentary and pictures

The remainder of 1 Kings after chapter 11, together with the whole of 2 Kings, gives the history of the kings after the division of the kingdom. This verse belongs to the history of the two separate kingdoms of Judah and Israel for about eighty years from the revolt of the ten tribes to the death of Jehoshaphat, comprising the reigns of several kings of both Judah and Israel. It belongs to the account of Asa's reign in Judah following Abijah's reign. It falls within Asa's better reign and the prosperity of Judah under his rule, in the time after the kingdom was divided when Judah and Israel had separate kings.

It comes during the time when the kingdoms of Israel and Judah continued together, sometimes at war and sometimes at peace. That included war between Judah and Israel. The verse records that Asa slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David, marking the end of Asa's reign in Judah. It records that his son Jehoshaphat reigned in his place, whose reign is included among the histories of Judah's kings.

The same period is repeated in Chronicles, which after the division gives no further mention of the wicked kingdom of Israel. The account of Asa is treated more fully in Chronicles. The successor named in the verse was a good king who later made the serious mistake of allying himself with the house of Ahab.

The wording that Asa slept with his fathers presents death as sleep, supporting the teaching that the dead rest until they are awakened in the resurrection. The description of death as sleep with his fathers means death is a sleep given by God, an unconscious rest in the grave without joy or anguish and without knowledge of what happens on earth. It is where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest until they awake.